


The meeting of worlds

by Pink_Haired_Devil



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, F/F, F/M, Witchcraft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-01-06 14:54:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18390668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pink_Haired_Devil/pseuds/Pink_Haired_Devil
Summary: In a day that the Doctor had expected to be boring, the supernatural world is exposed to human kind through the internet. Now, the wizard has to represent the magical comunity as an ambassador. Meanwhile, he deals with his own feelings and the long-term disappearence of his wife. He only hopes that things don't get (too) out of hand.





	1. Things could be worse

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all, how are you holding up in 2019?  
> This is my first time in many ways, to be honest. My first long fanfic, first DW fanfic, first fanfic in english (I'm brazilian), first time posting in AO3,etc etc etc. I've been a whovian since 2015 and completely in love with this series, most specially the couple to which this fanfic is dedicated to.  
> I've been working exhaustively in this story since december 2018, just making sure everything is exactly how I want it to be. I believe I have the tendency to be a bit more descriptive and write longer chapters (at least that is the pattern I've noticed while writing), so be aware of that.  
> The idea for this series came to me after watching Fantastic Beasts and Crimes of Grindelwald, and kinda stook in my head until I gave birth to the first chapter.  
> I believe the series is overall good, all things considered. Hope to please the readers :)  
> At the end, I ask you all to leave kudos and comments, with praises and constructive criticism, so this author here can get better and better each time.  
> That's it. Have a good time ^^

_The magic community is exposed_.

That is the first news that the Doctor receives on that ought-to-be boring Thursday – which turned out to be not boring at all. It definitely caught the Scotsman by surprise.

The newspaper – which was insistently floating in front of the old man, making sure that was being read – had an endless and meticulous description of the facts, with names, dates and a few videos on the column positioned on the right. He would leave them to later.

_The un-human activity was detected and spread through videos and photos on the internet, viralizing within minutes._

The Doctor sighed, grabbing the paper from air and entering his bookstore with a little _blimblim_ from the bell above the door. It was 5 a.m., no natural light to be spotted, so he pulls his index and middle fingers together with his free hand, making a bright blue rune wrote in circular gallifreyan appear on the tip of them. In matter of a second, the rune went upwards, increased it’s size and disappeared – but turning all the lights on by doing so. 

“No more hiding, then.”                                      

He whispered to himself, sitting on the closest armchair. The newspaper seemed to vibrate on his hand, begging to be read thoroughly, or maybe it was just the Doctor’s curiosity. He knew what it meant. Not only the exposure, but the overly detailed report. _That_ , he thought, _would be a wonderful opportunity to be wrong._

Hesitant, his eyes wandered to the title of the newspaper, the name of the company that had made it. His body tensed, like it could attack him and maybe it could. _Torchwood_.

The sorcerer shut his eyes tightly, groaning so loud that he probably woke up a few neighbours. Nop, not wrong, which somehow made him a bit angrier than he already was.

“Aren’t you lot tired of dealing with me?! There are other people out there, who would do my job a thousand times more willingly that I would!”

 _“Oh please, you know I am more than tired of you.”_ Said a familiar, feminine voice. It was a bit muffed and coming from one of the pages of the newspaper _. “But literally everyone else won’t agree with me. At least not  those who matter.”_

He ran his hand through his hair, reluctant to accept the ticking bomb that had fallen onto his lap. And the sun hadn’t even rise yet! He kept himself there, unmoving. The newspaper arm loosely thrown over the armchair’s arm, his free hand massaging his temple and his legs crossed, left ankle over the right knee. He hoped, with all his mighty, that in the blink of an eye this would be gone. And he felt like it was for a few seconds, until his old friend’s voice brought him back to reality.

_“Will you stop being a pussy and talk to me properly? Some people have busy lives Doctor, I don’t have time to waste looking to nothing.”_

With a quick hand move, the Scotsman threw the newspaper forward. It spiralled in the air and opened itself on what appeared to be the very central pages. The paper was floating horizontally and now presented Missy’s sort-of-but-not-really-holographic and miserable face, with dark eye bags, unusual dishevelled hair and a crossed expression.

“Can’t say it’s good to see you. Also, you look worse than ever.”

The woman rolled her eyes, already tired of talking to him.

“And for that you will have an extra thousand papers to sign. I am not your friend today, Doctor, I am the _Prime Minister_. Now, shut it and we can both deal with this horrendous bureaucracy.”

The Doctor made a dismissive sign with his hand.

“As you wish, _ma’am_.”

“As I made sure you were informed by the government’s official and exclusive news channel, our community was exposed. There isn’t anyone we can really blame and kill for it, because it was a worldwide phenomenon and doing so would characterize genocide. The community’s leaders are currently investigating the situation because all the tapes miraculously popped out at the same time. Which you would have known if you had read the bloody text.”

For a moment, the wizard made a mildly offended expression, gasped and put one hand over his chest. Before he could make a comment – which she knew he would – she continued.

“Now, I am not calling you at 5 a.m. just to tell what’s obvious.”

The environment’s atmosphere changed and lights dimmed. Black runes appeared on the air and the Doctor realized he wasn’t the only one awake in such an ungodly hour. He didn’t pay attention to the symbols, but knew that what was being told to him could not be heard by anyone else.

“All the presidents and prime ministers of supernatural societies over the globe – which unfortunately includes me – were united this night in the biggest and soon-to-be-called most important conference of all time. We decided to make a reunion with humans in ONU’s headquarters. All the authority figures of equal value to ours will be informed the moment that they wake up.”

He looked at her, a bit curious. She seemed to have finished but there were loads of questions unanswered, the main one being _why the fuck does this involves me_? The man frowned, sitting straight on his chair as his mind started to put two and two together. They wouldn’t reunite every single magical authority figure physically in one place nor could all of them talk at the same time or pick a nation as the superior one – which had been done before and not ended well. They needed one person to speak on their behalf.

“Oh, you are thinking! Sorry, your thinking face is a bit confusing, looks a lot like your homicidal face. Now, _Oncoming Storm_ , enlighten me on the reason why am I confidentially calling you, based on the given information.”

“Missy, are you asking me to speak for the whole magical world?”

“Oh, Doctor, I thought you were smarter.”

The man crossed his arms, surprised. That was the only explanation he could come up with but he got it wrong. It only meant that things could be worse.

“I am not _asking_ you to speak on our behalf. I am _demanding_ you to do so, with the support and power of every single leader in the world, who unanimously agreed that _YOU_ should represent us to human beings.”

He closed his eyes for a second, feeling the reality being drawn in front of him. Maybe it was just one of those weird dreams that were way too real. Maybe he would wake up and everything would be back in place. But, when the Doctor opened his eyes again, Missy was still staring at him with a mischievous grin.

“Fucking hell” he muttered, more to himself than anyone else.

“As much as I appreciate observing your agony, I am indeed a _very_ busy woman and I have other stuff to do. All the paperwork you need to read will be on your main desk. The reunion will happen tomorrow, 3 p.m. on London’s timezone or 8 p.m. on New York’s one. I’ll send someone to pick you up, as your… _geographic skills_ are quite questionable ones. The hopes of the whole world rely on your back, old man, better not to disappoint us all.”

And with that, she vanished. The newspaper closed itself silently and graciously fell to the nearest table. The black runes disappeared of his bookstore and lights turned back to normal.

Of course they would choose him. Of all people all over the globe, they would pick an old professor who owned a bookstore. Obviously he is everyone’s first choice, right?

The man got up, leaving the newspaper behind and moving towards the central part of the first floor. It was beautifully arranged, just like he wanted – maybe because he made it himself, from scratch. Yes, he had the skills to do so, one of the many perks of being as old as he.

It was just one big cream coloured sofa with a perfect half circular shape and slots to put books on it’s back, a dark brown furry round rug that fitted exactly the sofa’s half circle and finished it and a medium sized round table made of glass, positioned right on the middle of the rug. Simple, but he loved it.

As expected, piles of paper were positioned neatly over the table and some even on the floor. He mentally calculated more than 3 thousand sheets right in front of him, just waiting to be read. _This_ , he thought, _is even worse than correcting physics tests_.

It wasn’t like he had much of a choice. If he did flee, as he so much wanted to, he’d face the fury of every single person on the magical world AND probably would become a legal fugitive – on both worlds, because he was certain that his Prime Minister would make sure of it.

He then beckoned once at some paper sheets stapled together, making them float in his direction. It stood right in front of him and he unwillingly read it’s first sentences.

_Emergency Council of Supernatural Creatures and Activities – ECSCA_

_As agreed by every magical authority over the globe, this document gives the man known as The Doctor the authority to speak for the whole magical and supernatural community and, by doing so, the mentioned man agrees to the following conditions:_

And then came a list that was worth a hundred pages (he had checked the number on the last one). He snorted and shook his head. Out of nowhere, the papers on his hand were consumed by blue flames, turning into nothing but ashes.

“Oops”

The wizard dropped himself on the sofa with his arms spread, bouncing twice before stabilizing. Oh yes, he would totally read all of that and represent his kind, absolutely. He put both his feet on the table, making a few paper sheets fly away. _Yeah,_ he thought, _definitely._

And then all the paperwork he ought to read, sign and study burst into blue flames as yellow gallifreyan runes appeared on the palm of both his hands.

“Pity”

He smirked as the grey ashes heaped on the table and floor. Perhaps he should think about how difficult it would be to clean but he didn’t. Instead, he did something he loved: started talking to himself like there was someone listening to him.

“Well, you see, I would’ve loved to deal with all the problems that other people made and now _I_ have to fix. Really, is my favourite hobby. But I got a better idea for this atrocious morning.”

The wizard got up and picked up his wand from inside his coat pocket and stared at it. It was made of dragon’s bone, completely black and lustrous. It’s base was thick, made of dragon skin and it also had one single black diamond craved. The beauty of the object always had and always would catch the man by surprise, leaving him breathless for an instant or two.

“I am going to visit a friend.”

The sorcerer pointed his wand to his chest, feeling electricity run through his veins. His body relaxed under the familiar sensation and around him reality was distort. The space he was in went backwards in a blur, like he was zooming forward faster than the brain could acknowledge until it stopped. The effect lasted only a fraction of a millisecond.

His environment had changed. Now he was inside his friend’s flat, but it wasn’t like he was very silent about it. As he arrived, his body met a table, which he stumbled on. With the force of his body, the table fell, breaking cups and making a hell of a mess on the neat floor.

He gained his equilibrium again. The man intended to arrive on Bill’s main room, behind her sofa, but, as usual, he got it wrong. Fortunately, it wasn’t like that one time he arrived in her bedroom and caught a scene he would rather not– and all because she had forgotten her books in the university. That time, he tried to transport himself so quickly that he ended up _inside_ a wall.

The Doctor hurried on putting things back into place. He crossed his fingers, pointing to his little accident, and a white rune appeared. He made a sign that was like a Z and things went back into place. Like moving back in time, the table moved to it’s original position and so did the broken glasses – that weren’t broken anymore.

“WHO’S THERE?!”

The wizard winced. She was going to be mad. He hadn’t really thought about it, to be honest. What kind of a creep would appear at someone’s flat at 5 a.m.? He, apparently.

“I SAID WHO’S THERE? I HAVE A GUN, I CAN KILL YOU!”

He sighed, shaking his head.

“No, you don’t have a gun, Bill. You hate them as much as I do. But I really think you can kill me, it’s just a matter of how willing to you are.”

The sorcerer then heard a second voice, hushed as it could be. _Ah,_ he thought, _now she is going to get madder._ After their little dialogue, Bill turned the lights on. She was wearing a green shirt that had something printed (that he could not understand what was because the shirt was inside out) and a black pyjama trouser. His friend stood protectively in front of another woman – who he knew by name now. Heather was wearing an oversized red sweater and he could not see much else.

“What the hell are you doing here?!” Bill hissed, half angry half confuse. Heather, on the other hand, was only confused.

“Is that professor Smith?” The blonde whispered.

“One, paying you a visit in a very strange hour of the day. Two, yes, Heather, it’s me. Hope you have your homework with ya!” The wizard joked, slowly walking from the kitchen to them.

“Why didn’t you call or something?! Did something happened?” Bill was now concerned. They were very close friends and once or twice visited each other in strange hours – usually in emergencies. She then realized that this was way too out of normal to her girlfriend and turned to her. “Okay, sorry, I know this is, like, weird. Like, _very_ weird.”

“What type of relationship do you have with him?” She sounded worried and a bit fearful for Bill, maybe she thought that the Doctor was a pervert? Probably, but he could not really tell.

“She’s my granddaughter. Bill, Bill is my granddaughter.” He said, stopping in front of the back of the sofa, eyes still glued to the women in front of him.

His friend played along.

“Yeah, that’s why he’s here, probably some family emergency… stuff.”

Heather huffed, rolling her eyes at the situation.

“Bill, I’m not buying it. You said to me you were an orphan raised by your aunt, no grandfather mentioned. Ever.” The blonde looked defiant, crossed arms and crossed face. “Why is he here? Do you want me to call the police?” She was already picking her phone from her sweater pocket when Bill held her hands, sighing.

“There’s no need to, okay? The Doctor is not dangerous, he probably can’t hurt a fly. He is a good man.” She sounded honest, which made the wizard grin, his heart warm with affection.

Heather gazed at him, suspicious. She knew they weren’t telling the truth and was sort of hurt they didn’t. The Doctor decided to intervene.

“Sorry for lying to you, Heather.” He sighed. “Bill is not _really_ my granddaughter but it’s pretty much like she was. I came here as fast as I could because someone threatened me, and said that they had Bill as hostage.”

He wasn’t lying. As a wizard you can have visions of the future once in a while – even humans can do that, when they sleep – because timelines and realities are always crossing each other. He had saw a man pointing a gun to Bill in one of those visions. He then transported himself to Bill’s neighbourhood and guarded it from 10 p.m. to almost 5 a.m., when he decided to go to his bookstore. Whatever was supposed to happen, he had stopped it – and casted a bunch of spells just to be sure.

Heather released herself from Bill and grabbed her phone, going back to the bedroom.

“I’m calling the police.”

“Heather, wait!”

And then they argued. Probably argued, the Doctor could not tell. Their voices were low enough for him to not hear them and they stood in the bedroom for time enough to the sun rise. The wizard sat and kept himself on the sofa, waiting. He knew that right now the TV was probably interviewing every world leader, but he felt the need to talk to someone close before even thinking about the chaos outside.

The bedroom door opened. He decided to not look at them, but guessed that Heather was crossed because she left the flat with a loud bang of the front door.

Bill didn’t show up for another minute, but when she did she was wearing a dress and was both angry and disappointed.

“ _This_ ” she threatened, pointing to him “better be a life or death situation.”

“Sorry about your girlfriend. She didn’t knew about this part of you, did she?”

Bill shook her head, holding herself to not cry. 

“Sorry I exposed you.”

“Just say what you need already, okay?”

The Doctor responded by turning on the TV and patting on the sit on his side, silently asking Bill to join him on the sofa. As she did, the image of United Kingdom’s human Prime Minister presented itself on what appeared to be a press conference. She was in the middle of a sentence.

“… but I don’t have any further information.”

The interview was then cut, the focus back to the random news program.

“It is quite worrying that even our Prime Minister don’t know what is happening right now” said the man in a suit, sat on a white counter. By his side, a woman.

“For those who are lost at the moment,” said the woman “this was today’s morning emergency press conference about what is claimed as either alien creatures or magical creatures among us. Footages have been spread last night and viralized all over the globe. The main concern is if this is or not a threat for the human race.”

They watched silently. Bill eyes were almost popping out of her face and her mouth made a perfect O. The Doctor then turned the TV off.

“There will be a reunion tomorrow. And they want me to speak on our behalf.”

She closed her mouth. She seemed to have decided to let her problems with her girlfriend for another time and treat the urgent matter at hand.

“Oh my god”

Was all that she said for a few minutes, way too lost to think of anything.

“Doctor, this could mean war” she blurted, the fear in her voice was so strong that entered the man’s both heart’s like a dagger “this could mean…” She stopped, suddenly realizing that the weight of the world was on her friend’s shoulder. She hugged him tight.

“Doctor you are scared!” the wizard silently nodded, awkwardly hugging her back.

“I don’t think I can do this, Bill. And I also can’t stand another war.” He whispered with sincerity, all the grief of thousand years on his voice. He had lost too much and too many in all those fights, including the love of his life.

His friend cupped his face and looked him in the eyes, all the love, care and admiration she had for her professor/sort-of-granddad exposed.

“Doctor, you are the only one who can do this.”

“Not you too.”

“Yes, me too! No one cares for the humans like you do, no one did what you did to repair the mistakes of your past! You are the best person I’ve ever met, Doctor, and if anyone can do this, it’s you.”

She got up, beaming at her friend. Her bright smile and energy and her faith on her friend shone like a thousand stars together.

“If it’s you who will be our diplomat I’m not scared of war.”

“Bill, I can’t do this.”

“Yes you can, you did it once! I might not have been there but there are loads of books about it. I’ve read them all! You stopped the Great War and made the dialogue bridge! You saved us more times than I can count!”

“Bill, I wasn’t alone back then.” The smile on Bill’s face died slowly, and he felt guilty about it. But that was the truth, his truth. “Everything was before Melody vanished. I can’t do this without her. I don’t think there’s even a point on doing it without her.” He sighed, defeated by his bottled feeling. “I came here to ask to do it in my place.”

They kept silent. The Doctor gazed at the floor, like it was the most interesting thing in the world. Everything around him felt tense, out of place, wrong – himself included.

“You want _me_ to do it?”

The Doctor still refused to look up, his eyes glued to the floor.

“You are the first person I could think of.”

Bill made an indignant sound. He looked at her. Both her hands were on her hairline and her mouth was agape, like she was caught by surprise.

“Doctor I hadn’t even graduated as a witch yet!” She yelled, more by astonishment than anything else, although he could catch a bit of annoyance on her tone. He rolled his eyes.

“You are on your last year, top of your school and far too clever for your own good.”

“And you are the literal saviour of the magic kind. I can’t think of one single person on our community who doesn’t respect you. No one is going to be just as good as you!”

“Melody was.”

If they weren’t far too invested on their argument, they’d have heard the _zipping_ noise behind them and noticed the third presence.

“Did you really fucking set on fire the most important papers on history just because you are butt hurt over your dead wife?! I could get you executed right here and right now.”

Bill went pale, which is expected when the highest magic authority on the United Kingdom transport herself to your living room. The third surprise of the day. She tried to speak something but it ended up sounding more like a babble.

The Doctor got up and turned to the fully-grown witch. He reunited all the calm and sarcasm that he could on his voice.

“I burnt them because I don’t give a fuck about them, Missy.”

Missy was livid. Her eyes were on fire with rage as she approached him and grabbed his arm with unhuman force.

“You are coming with me.”

And then, they vanished.


	2. New York and the cube part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor has to deal with Missy and a huge, curious crowd.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so chapter two came basically a week after C1 and I make no promises on keeping this good timing bc god knows when I'll be able to write good stuff again.  
> A special thanks to the two people who commented on the last chapter, you two made me feel a bit less of a failure.  
> Also, thanks to everyone who left kudos <3  
> Hope this chapter will please you :3  
> XOXO

There were many people in front of her, so many that she couldn’t really count. The ONU’s dome was crowded with every race, every size and every shape of human – and not so human – reporters. It was also incredibly loud, with screams that tried to get her attention, asking all types of question. As if the noise wasn’t enough, there were also far too many flashes in her direction as she walked towards the platform on which she’d speak for the whole magical community – her old friend, Missy, made sure she would. Behind her stood the hologram of every single magical leader, standing still and facing the audience, but watching very single move of the blonde.

It was funny. The most important moment in history and she was wearing not very conventional clothes. A white shirt with a rainbow printed on it, large blue trousers and boots. Not exactly what you’d expect from a diplomat, but worries about her looks isn’t the type of thought that’d cross the blonde’s mind.

The witch stopped at the platform, gazing to the people in front of her. It was a beautiful view, she had to admit. The people, the cameras, the sunlight shinning bright on that Saturday noon over their heads, everything somehow fitted well together. She even wanted to take a picture.

The woman’s eyes wandered on the crowd for a bit, took her long enough to notice but finally she found who she was looking for. Bill was in a middle-ish row, looking at her slightly confused, with a lot of unanswered questions shinning on her eyes. The witch adjusted her posture, feeling confident enough with the presence of her friend.

The sorcerer looked down at the five microphones in front of her – and a bottle of water –, huffing. She heard the sound ring throughout the dome and felt her eyes go wide. _That was expected_ , she thought, _but loud_. The blonde tapped at the central mic, deciding to focus on one rather than the others. The noise once again resonated. She cleared her throat and the place turned as silent as the space itself.

“Hello”

The blonde shrank slightly, paused and blinked a few times, her eyes bothered by the many flash lights activated at the same time. Everybody stared at her with enthusiasm and a bit of fear, like every human being when facing something new, strange, perhaps deadly but certainly exciting. She smiled, hoping to make the fear vanish of their eyes.

“I’m The Doctor. To supernaturals, I am sorceress graduated by the European Academy of Witchcraft and Magical Arts. To humans, I am a physics professor and owner of a bookstore.”

It was as simple as that, just a few words, but she could see some of the people in front of her were holding their breath without even noticing. She could almost _feel_ their hearts racing. The Doctor loved humans, she knew that, and this press conference was everything that she needed to be reminded of it. The witch decided to not hold the silence for much longer.

“But a lot of things happened since Wednesday, thanks to the internet, and now I also am the ambassadress of the Magical Community. Any questions?”

And then the crowd roared.

 

**Thursday morning**

Everything zoomed, just like it had when he first transported himself. He wasn’t in Bill’s flat anymore, but in a tiny room completely made of black steel. The wizard knew what it meant: he was blocked of magic. Of course, Missy, who knew him far too well for his own liking, would be prepared for a fleeing occasion. She let his arm go aggressively, glaring at him with a murderous gaze.

“Please, tell me how declaring war to the _plebs_ will make your dealing with grief any easier.” She sneered with disgust, taking a few steps away from him. “Illuminate me with your wisdom, oh god of the selfishness!” She bowed in a mocking and exaggerated way.

The sorcerer raised an angry brow, staring at his friend’s eyes with equal murderousness painted on his face.

“Nevertheless of what I do, I know you will commit genocide. So what’s the point of all this?”

Missy smiled. He knew her enough to know that, in that moment, inside her head, humanity crumbled to her feet, begging for mercy that would never come. She was his friend, yes, but also a big fan of mass murder and cruelty – which he despised with all of his hearts.

“Oh, you do know me, I’ll give you that.”

At her side, a hole in the ground opened up and a black umbrella popped out of it, straight into her hands. The witch held it with expertise, analysing every little detail as she kept talking to the Doctor. The man watched her, with more cautiousness than curiosity, expecting some sort of mad action. _The Parliament must be insane_ , he thought.

“But, you see, after our little… _disagreement_ with the Daleks, half of the world-wide committee is holding their arses so they don’t shit themselves in the face of the mere possibility of another war.”

The woman walked towards him, standing right in front of the wizard, and used her umbrella to make the man face her. They were so close that their noses touched and they could feel each other breaths. The Doctor didn’t flinch, walked back or showed any type of fear because it would only make things funnier for her – and he didn’t want that. She locked her eyes on his.

“But if it was my decision to make, your little pets would be all dead by morning.” She murmured, so low that he could barely hear, yet so dangerous that made a shiver run down his spine.

The Doctor grunted, disappointed but not really surprised by Missy’s words and behaviour. She held their gazes for a few more seconds and then turned her back on him, walking towards a wall. The wizard knew what she was capable of, he had seen her in action before, and now he was glad that such a decision didn’t rely exclusively on her hands.

“The committee, however, does not agree with me. I was one of the very few who voted for complete extermination of plebs. In the end, they all wanted peace. The first name to come at the discussion on who’d be our speaker was Melody, but she’s dead so...”

 _She isn’t dead_ , he wanted to correct, _just missing._

 “…our second option was you.”

The sorceress seemed to be focused on the black wall, searching for something just like someone would search for a book. The Doctor put one hand in his pocket, trying to get some rune but nothing happened.

“Can you please stop calling humans by _that_ slur? It’s really offensive.”

Missy chose to completely ignore his request. The wizard, then, tried to look out for his wand – that should be inside his jacket’s pocket – but when he did, Missy extended her right arm and showed that his wand was with her. _Must’ve gotten it when we transported_ , he thought. She sighed, turning around and staring deadly into his eyes.

“And now you want to leave us all down.” She murmured dramatically, like she was actually begging and feeling emotional pain. The witch was also slowly slipping down the wall, back of her hand with his wand on her forehead. “You want us to suffer and plead for you to please, _please_ talk to the plebs so they don’t throw a bomb on our heads! OH!” She gasped, already on the floor.

The Doctor couldn’t contain himself from rolling his eyes and buffing, arms crossed and tired expression.

“Are you over yet?”

“Hush!” She glared at him, before going back to her drama. “You want us to perish!”

He sighed, tired and maybe a bit defeated. Missy got up after her show, and kept looking at the wall like nothing had happened. The Doctor just wanted to open his bookstore and give his physics classes later that day but, instead, he was given the easy task of saving the world of a war. _Melody could handle this_ , he mentally said to himself, _she could do it and still come back home for tea_. _But me, on the other hand_ …

 “You have a team of the best diplomats, all of them begging for this opportunity. Contact one of them because I don’t have to do this, it’s not my problem. Actually, I don’t have to solve anyone else’s problem anymore, let alone a whole race’s.”

Without looking at him, she pointed her umbrella to his chest, using her shoulder as the object’s support. Suddenly, the Doctor felt like gravity had been multiplied by thousand and now his limbs weighted so much that it was impossible to stay on his feet. He fell like a sack of potatoes – but fortunately a chair materialized behind him and he simply sat. His head, however, seemed to be free of the effect. He looked down to his chest and noticed a white, elegant gallifreyan rune. Of course.

“Stop whining like a child, you are way too old for that.” She said nonchalantly, her free hand now touching the black wall, still searching for something. “Now, stay put and don’t throw yourself on the floor as a tantrum, will you?”

“Ah, right, because I have so many movement options right now, don’t I?”

His comment went unnoticed. Her slim finger finally found what she was looking for, pressing a little square in the wall. The square went inside enough to disappear of vision and leave only the shadow in it’s place.

The Doctor heard a little and mechanical _tzuuuuuuuuuu_ coming from the wall, but he couldn’t see anything with Missy’s body covering his vision. The woman hummed with satisfaction, picking something up.

“You are insisting so much on making simple things difficult that I am obligated to do this.”

She turned around and the object on her hands made his hearts stop working for a minute. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t think, his eyes were so wide that it was like they could pop off and his mouth was dry and open. On Missy’s hand, a blue notebook that he knew far too well: the memories of his wife. He then felt something he had only when Melody disappeared. He felt panic.

“Missy!” He shouted, hearts racing. “Missy! Give it to me!” He pleaded, his loud voice beating against the tiny room’s walls and coming back to his ears, trembling and unstable – just like it had left his mouth. “Missy! Missy!”

She ignored him. The witch’s umbrella then shrank into what the man recognized as her wand. She ran the object over the blue cover with interest, her eyes burning with mischief. The wizard pleads, begging with her name, only got louder. She opened the diary on a random page and with a murmur and a swing of her wand, a projection of Melody Pond appeared between her and the Doctor.

The projection was with her arms crossed, her wild golden curls put in a messy bun. She wore a not-so-white basic top, covered in dust, loose cargo pants and boots, making it obvious that she was in a dig. The Doctor remembered that day. Melody was furious.

_“Dear diary, I’m going to kill my husband.”_

 

**Saturday noon, press conference at ONU.**

The Doctor’s eyes went wide with the wildness of the crowd. She tried to hear their questions, but there were far too many at the same time.

_What do you mean by graduated? You studied to be a witch?_

_Ma’am, why were you specifically chosen to be the ambassadress?_

_Can you explain how magic works?_

_Is Harry Potter a real thing?_

_Are you and your kind a threat to humanity?_

_Why haven’t the magic creatures come out sooner?_

_Can you be killed by a human?_

_Do you have a philosopher’s stone?_

_Is there any way to keep yourself young throughout magic?_

“Harry Potter is sort of right, but not that much.” Was the first thing the woman could think and, thus, speak. The reporter – a short, pink haired woman – smiled with her answer and dutifully noted what she said. “The Quidditch wasn’t real but we tried it and turns out that it was actually fun to play. There’s even a world cup now.” 

Many more questions decided to pop up at the same time. The noise was somehow louder than when she first walked in and everyone seemed to be talking and/or raising their hands. She kept herself quiet, hands laid flat over the platform, waiting for the moment they’d realize that she wanted to speak – and it took a few seconds for them to do it so. Asking about questions so soon was dumb, she decided.

The silence came and the flashes kept bothering her eyes, so the situation was as comfortable as it could get. The Doctor smiled.

“You seem to have a lot of questions, which is absolutely brilliant.” She paused for a brief moment, her eyes trying to catch everything that the humans in front of her were feeling. “And I think that it’s natural. It’s the first time you are informed of a whole another world, another reality, creatures that you thought that only existed in mythology are actually buying groceries at your side, maybe they are even your friends.” The reporters now looked at each other, seeking for an outsider, but it was way too hard – though doable with practice – to spot one because, well, magical beings and humans are hardly physically different – except, of course, for a few groups of creatures.

“My point is…” the witch realized that her comment sort of made things a bit bad for the reporters and she had to fix it immediately. “… that you’ve treated us naturally, like you’ve always treated someone. You treat your friend that is actually an elf as a friend, not as an outsider.” She beamed with enthusiasm, her voice a bit high pitched. She was a little emotional, yes. “That doesn’t have to change, this new information doesn’t have to turn your relationship with magical beings upside down. We are alive, conscious, aware. We work to try to keep things together, we fail sometimes and other times we don’t. We have happy moments, sad moments, we celebrate births and we mourn the dead. We are real and flawed, just like everybody else. We are not a threat. The last thing we want is that the awareness of our existence make you fear us when there’s nothing to fear! We, humans and otherwise, have lived together for _ages_ and our only conflict was during the inquisition. You discovered us, back then, but then the facts were completely altered. You ended up murdering your own kind for not knowing exactly what you were dealing with.”

Her mouth felt a bit dry – which is normal when you talk a lot. She took the bottle of water on the platform and drank from it, just enough to make her comfortable with speaking again. She cleared her throat, letting the bottle on it’s former place.

“Which lead me to one of the main points of this whole conference thing.” The witch tucked her hair behind her ear. “I’m going to explain to you what the Magical Community is, how does the magical world works and how our worlds are intertwined. This is necessary, to all of us, so we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past.” She ran her hand through her hair, smiling at the end of the act. “And it also is gonna take a while.”

The sorceress took another swig of water and, with that, began the explanation.

 

**Thursday, unknown hour, inside the metal cube.**

_“This dumbass decided that it was a good idea to try alchemy right beside my tent, because ‘I don’t wanna be away from you’. And then it exploded and I woke up with a jet of water on my face because that stupid man had to extinguish the fire. Thankfully we could fix the artefacts that he blew up but I’m still gonna kill him. Honestly, I probably would be seen as a hero.”_

The Doctor's throat felt tight. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t speak, he could do nothing but feel pain. His face felt wet with tears, tears that were rolling down his cheeks without authorization. How she managed to get his wife’s diary was beyond him – but he was certainly getting it back. The wizard was paralyzed, unable to do anything.

Missy probably did something with her wand because the image of Melody froze in front of him. She walked until she was right beside the projection and pointed her wand to his wife.

“You really shouldn’t have taught her Venusian Aikido. That insufferable woman became even smugger after it and I didn’t think it was possible.”

The Doctor’s hands turned into fists. He was hurt and now he was angry, dangerous. He locked his jaw and looked at Missy with a fury that he only had used against the Daleks. It was enough to make his friend take a step back, cautious even though he couldn’t do magic inside that black cube.

“Give back this book, Missy.” His voice wasn’t loud, but was strong as a thunder. It was like his voice alone had the power to destroy worlds and realities – and maybe, just maybe, it did. “Or I’ll make you regret it until the day you die.”

The witch blinked a few times, regaining control over herself. Backing out when he was so much alike the Oncoming Storm was only automatic. The man was homicidal and she decided that she liked it. Missy chuckled, looking down at him with interest.

“Oh, I’ll give it back to you, that _is_ the plan. But I should warn you that this book is attached to the papers on the next room. They need to be signed. Every sheet that you read and sign is a page that will appear in front of you. Burn them and the book burns, leave them and you won’t be able to touch this book again.”

The sorcerer looked up in defiance. His eyes gleamed in way that showed just how old he was – and how cruel he had been. Those orbs could only belong to someone who had seen too much and feared nothing. It made a shiver run down Missy’s spine, but she held herself together quite well.

“You think that this threat can hold me back? Or this funny little cube?” He mocked, his words dripping in irony. He then shouted. “You can’t hold me back!” He opened his mouth largely to say those words. “This place can’t hold me back. No one can hold me back. If something happens to this book I’ll make sure that you understand that nothing and no one is able to hold me back.”

The witch gulped. He was serious, so serious. The wizard could see in her eyes that she was considering burning the diary right there, in front of him, just to see the world light up in flames. Something stopped her – maybe her last trace of sanity.

“Nothing will happen to the book, as long as you do as told.” With a movement of her wand, the image of Melody disappeared. “Now, you are in a pocket dimension’s chamber, specifically design to contain you and your powers. Wasn’t made from one day to the other, it was actually during the war against the Daleks that it was projected. You know, just in case you went all murderous on us.” She sat right in front of him, like there was a chair made of air on which she could rest comfortably. “It’s so fancy that even has your magical signature. It tastes like fish fingers and custard, a very poor choice if you ask me.”

The Doctor grinded his teeth and the witch smiled, enjoying far too much this torture.

“You have until tomorrow to read and sign every single paper sheet _and_ write down a speech. Now, I’ll leave you to it.”

The woman’s image blurred so much that he couldn’t see the difference between her skin and her clothes, but it lasted less than a millisecond before she vanished from his sight. She had transported herself out of the chamber and left him alone. The wizard looked down, seeing that the rune on his chest had faded away and he now could move freely. He got up and, besides him, a door opened.

-X-

The Doctor took his time. He had absolutely no reason to rush so he spent at least two hours trying to escape and half an hour trying to accept the fact that we clearly couldn’t. Whomever had engineered this cube was not only impossibly clever, but also had access to top technologies and knew him way too well. He concluded that it could only be Missy.

Finally, boredom caught up with him. For the idea of having something to do, he entered the door that had opened. It was dark but as soon as he arrived, the lights turned on. It was minimalistic, per say.

On the wall facing the entrance was an enormous mirror, so big that almost covered the whole wall, leaving only 2 inches of black steel on each edge. In the reflected image, he saw himself, the medium-sized rectangular table and the uncomfortable looking chair (both objects made of black steel as well). Literally nothing else was inside that little room so he frowned.

The wizard decided that couldn’t hurt to try to do magic inside the room. He made a claw with his right hand, placed it over his mouth – palm facing the mirror – and violently pushed in downwards, doing an 180º arch in front of his body. Nothing happened except his groan of frustration. At that moment, the sorcerer realized how hard it must be to be human. He pitied them with both his hearts.

Once again defeated by boredom, the man decided that it was best to sit on the chair to see what would happen. He looked down at the table and a few paper sheets, all clamped together, appeared and also a simple black pen.

He then did as he was told. The papers were purely bureaucratic, with no points deserving to be highlighted. They were also longer than they appeared to be and more boring than he in all of his brilliance could have ever dreamed of. 

When the Doctor finished signing that last paper, another one appeared and a sheet of his wife’s diary also materialized on the table. Obviously, the man gave priority to the journal.

He couldn’t conjure her hologram without a wand – or access to magic – but he still knew how to read. On the very first sentence, his hearts tightened on his chest.

_I can’t even describe how much it hurts to see the Daleks destroy and take away everything that I love. My hatred for this disgusting race and my desire for vengeance were not born in this war, but they grow with every drop of blood spilled in the name of their sickening eugenic desire._

_I root for the day that the last Dalek will be dead, because then – and only then – I’ll be able to breathe again and, perhaps, close my eyes. Because of the Daleks, our right to have peace was taken away, and I’ll give them that. Even before the war is finished, they have already won. Never again will I, or my husband, or anyone who has witnessed this war, be able to sleep without having nightmares with those screams, those images of people dying, the cries for help that will never be_

He couldn’t read the last word. The paint in the paper had spread, which he supposed that was the results of a single tear. He took a sharp breath, suddenly happy that he couldn’t see her image because he knew it would hurt far too much. His free hand had turned into a fist. He kept reading.

_I’m not a woman of faith, I’ve never believed in any god, goddess or deity whatsoever but, today, after I saw my own house be turned into nothing but ashes, I prayed. I prayed that this war would be over, I prayed that the souls of the dead would be led to a better place, I prayed for the families that will never even have the chance to mourn their dead’s body because it doesn’t exist anymore. I plead and I beg for the end of this horror. I pray that, after all of this is over, never again will be another war._

The wizard sighed, realization falling over his shoulders like lead. Something in the back of his mind clicked, but he gave it no attention. It was like Melody herself was asking him to prevent another war, begging to not let it happen ever again. How could he dare to say ‘no’ to his wife’s most sincere plead? His eyes wandered at the date, which he instantaneously regretted. It was before the second war against the Daleks.

The paper flew from his hand, now floating in front of the table and, thus, in front of the mirror. Something gave him the impression that Missy was listening to him, watching every move.

“I hate you.”

He said, looking into the mirror and dead into his own eyes. If he was talking to Missy or himself, he could never tell.

 

**Saturday night, ONU’s headquarters.**

The press conference went as good as it could be. The Doctor explained a bit of magical history, their powers, capacities, species, how the realities were intertwined, how there were different worlds living in the same space but in different dimensions, among other things that took her the whole day. Her main point was the same throughout the whole speech: we want peace. She knew that some reporters would distort her words, but she had faith that humanity, in it’s majority, would understand her intentions as clear as day.

The afternoon ended, and so did her words. It was decided the Sunday would be for questions only, so she was preparing herself mentally to that. After being on her feet all day, she sat on a sofa in a cosy room, taking a sip of water in a plastic cup.

A blue rune appeared on her free hand as she made a sign, turning on the TV on the wall. As expected, her image was in every channel she switched to, the majority with headlines like “magical people want peace”, which pleased the sorceress. Some others, however, called her a “threat” and “possible enemy”. The Doctor wanted them to go to hell.

She then heard a _zipping_ noise, but, this time, the blonde had a feeling she would appreciate it.

“You have no idea of how many spells I had to cast so I could find you. I mean, the security here is WILD.”

The Doctor laughed, turning her face to Bill. Her friend was wearing a shirt with colourful stripes and baggy jeans. The older witch offered the younger a sit in front of her.

“I should be happy, then. You never really know when someone will try to kill you” the blonde said, a bit of resentment on her voice.

“By the way, what happened?” Bill wondered, sitting as her friend pointed. “I wasn’t sure that you were you up there! I mean, look at you!”

“What? Do I have something on my teeth?” the blonde teased, separating her lips so her teeth were as visible as possible. She then proceeded to clean it with her index fingernail.

“Yeah, a whole new face. There was residual regeneration energy spilling from all over your body, actually that’s how I knew it was you. Like, you burped gold smoke.”

Bill seemed excited, but fearful at the same time. Maybe the idea of The Doctor dying, even if not for real _real_ , scared the hell out of her – which was comprehensible.

“You should have seen Missy when she regenerated, a cloud of golden smoke followed her for three days! Three. Days. Or so I’ve been told.”

Bill chuckled and the sorceress felt warmer. It was like the brunette was her private sun, capable of giving her a bright day whenever she was around. Bill really felt like family, the little bit that she had after… everything.

“What did you think, by the way? About the speech, I mean.” The Doctor asked with certain vulnerability, hoping for an honest feedback from her sort-of-granddaughter friend.

“You did the best you could,” Bill smiled “and probably prevented a war. I can’t say that there won’t be prejudice and stuff like that, but people will be open to us. And we owe that to you.”

The sorceress smiled sheepishly, making a dismissive sign with her hand. They kept in silence for half a second before the woman’s stomach made a loud noise, showing that even The Doctor had physiological needs.

“I think that’s a cue. I’m starving, d’ya wanna grab something to eat?” The older asked, already getting up from her sit.

“Aren’t you gonna be recognized? Your face is literally all over the place.” Bill inquired, also getting up.

“You’d be surprised.” The ambassadress took her wand from her bigger-on-the-inside trouser pocket and pointed to her face, while on her way to the door. She started to whisper to conjure a spell and opened the door, looking to Bill with a totally different face.

“Are you coming?”

-X-

A night in New York was really one of a kind, but the Doctor couldn’t see it anymore. Both of the women had travelled the world(s) – and did it together once in a while –, and every visit was different, unique. New York used to be one of the blonde’s favourite places but the city felt hollow now – and couldn’t bring any sense of that uniqueness anymore. It wasn’t the city’s fault, really, but she had lost a lot in there, and NY kind of took the blame. It just made her sad, now. The buildings, the noises, the unique appearance of the town, everything was just… too hurtful.

As they walked the city’s weirdly empty streets, Bill seemed to have spoken to the ambassadress, but the blonde didn’t answer. She was in the automatic mode, just walking forward, her thoughts far away from the present, wandering in a time that wouldn’t come back. She was only brought back to reality when the girl took her hand, worry painted on her face. They stopped walking.

“Doctor, is there anything bothering you?”

The woman looked at Bill and smiled, dismissive.

“Just Missy, but I think that’s kinda part of her job.” She answered thoughtful, one finger on her chin. Bill frowned, not convinced by the woman’s attitude.

 “That’s not what I was talking about.”

The youngest arched a brow and crossed her arms, waiting for a proper answer from the witch. Around them, the world was silent. Bill’s eyes were quietly asking her to be vulnerable, to open up about something, but she knew that the girl would respect her if she didn’t. The Doctor turned her body into the brunette’s direction and decided to tell her a bit of the story.

“There is a place in here, in New York.” The blonde said smiling, looking up to the stars like they could illuminate her mind. “My wife and I would come every year, in the same date, to visit a house. It used to be her parent’s”

“Used to?”

The Doctor wandered with her eyes for a bit, before landing them on Bill’s.

“It was the only thing that lasted of our family.” She admitted, a sad smile painted on her face. “But not even the house is here anymore.” _Or my missing wife_ , she thought bitterly.

She saw the brunette’s face fall into an expression that could only be described as empathy. She had lost her family too, she certainly could relate.

“I’m sorry” Bill showed her condolences. The Doctor saw in her eyes the pain that she carried, the loneliness, the regret. It was like the girl had opened her soul to her sort-of-grandmother and the blonde was glad that she did. It made her feel like she wasn’t completely alone. It was funny, how grief could bring two people closer. She smiled, looking at the stars once again, like she could see their faces painted in the sky.

“Even though Rory and Amy are gone, they will always be here, with me.” She putted her hand over her heart. “As long as I walk the Earth, they will live.” She said more to herself than to Bill. It helped her, gave some sort of comfort, to think that they weren’t really gone as long as she remembered them.

Bill smiled sadly, admiration for her friend written all over her face. Inside the blonde’s head, however, she was fighting to not show the pain and grief that was brought to surface. To that, she had lonely nights.

“Now, the restaurant I promised you.” The Doctor pointed her head to an establishment by the end of the street. “The food is out of this world. Literally.”

They walked silently to the restaurant’s door, which was unexpectedly open but expectedly empty. The Doctor took her wand from the pocket and pointed to the door. Her hand went up, down and did the contour of the door while she recited something very quietly.

 **“** To the land of green trees and those with good heart. In the fields of Olympus, there must be no harm.” She muttered and pointed her wand to the door’s centre. The door’s silhouette shone in orange for a moment, but nothing else changed. The Doctor looked to her friend and wiggled both her eyebrows, excited.

Bill smiled, amused by the idea of going to the truce zone.

“God I can’t remember the last time I went to Olympus!” Bill said “It has, like, pink-ish sky, right?”

“Nah, it changed to white last season. Quite a novelty.” The Doctor answered, her hand already on the handle. “You are going to love this place.” When they entered the door, the establishment wasn’t empty anymore. Actually, it was pretty crowded.

The restaurant had waiters of every size and race serving every type of creature, going from elves and fairies to goblins and Cyclopes – the place seemed to have everyone together. It was bigger on the inside too, which was pretty noticeable since the restaurant probably had the size of a park.

The ambassadress felt the spell she casted on her face fade away, which automatically dragged a few looks on her direction. It would take seconds, maybe a minute, for the place to go silent and focus on her. She hoped for a minute.

“Hello, costumers, I’m Clara, what do you want for dinner in this epic evening?”

Announced a voice on their left. The woman apparently was not seeing them properly. The blonde smiled, turning her body to Clara.

“I’m pretty sure you know that already.”

When Clara took a proper look to the blonde’s face, her mouth opened in a perfect ‘O’ and she dropped both her pen and notebook.

“DOCTOR SMITH!”

She screamed and everyone looked at them. _The minute is over_ , the Doctor thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, definetly NOT the ending I had planned. Chapter 2 was all made up in my head, but I didn't expected it to be +10k words big. For your sake and to try to keep a pattern on chapter's number of words, I decided to split it in two parts. It helped me too, bc now I basically have C3 halfway through :v  
> Anyways, any grammar mistake is my own - still don't have a beta :c  
> I have hopes that you have enjoyed this piece. Please, do leave comments and your kudos, they mean a LOT to me.  
> If possible, pls tell me if my thirteen is out of character or not (I'm a bit scared to write her, which is a problem since this whole thing IS with her)  
> Thanks for keeping up <3  
> XOXO


	3. New York and the cube part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor has to deal with regeneration and what comes after it. She also visits Clara with Bill and talk about one or two things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE READ THE FIRST PART OF THIS CHAPTER WITHOUT A PAUSE  
> Ok I really needed to make an emphasis on this because it was something made to be read nonstop, so you are warned.  
> Now, this is basically an 11k words chapter that is actually chapter 2 - I had to split in two parts because otherwise chapter two would be ENORMOUS. I finally ended where I fucking wanted to but I took the long road. I will always put excelence in the first place, so I prefered to do a long, descriptive chapter with highlighten parts than simply throwing things dumbly. This has a different rithym than the other and is probably the most important chapter so far - a few things are open here because I'll use them in the future.  
> About my delay:  
> First of all, I'M SORRY RWEOPRIOEWRIPEIWRR  
> I had the whole chapter planned but a bunch of things happened - like my university being threatened to close due to the governament's cuts on our budget (it's a public university) and a few personal problems. So, it took time because I've been busy AND because is an 11k word chapter GIMME A BREAK  
> I don't know when I'll post another chapter, but I'll try to be as quick as I can.  
> Hope you like this little giant. Please share with your friends, gimme kudos and comments (they mean a whole lot to me).  
> Any grammar mistakes are mine and I'm sorry for them (bit difficult to correct a long work).  
> XOXO

**Unknown day, unknown hour, inside the metal cube.**

Journal, document. Bureaucracy, wife. Problems of the present, problems of the past. Coldness, warmth. That’s how it went, until there were no more diary’s pages coming, because it was complete, but only sheets and more sheets for him to read and sign. And he surprisingly did as expected. Missy had a plan, and it worked. Every time the thought of running away crossed his mind, he would also remember the words of his wife. She didn’t want war, and neither did he. Those pages made him change his mind over the subject of being an ambassador. He was willing, now.

The sorcerer had allowed himself to unlock all of his haunting memories, all of his nightmares, the image of innocent blood spilling on his face because he couldn’t save them. Those screams, those noises, it felt too real now. He couldn’t simply run away from this, even if he hated the idea in the first place. He had been responsible for so much suffering in the past that he couldn’t drag away the responsibility to prevent another war.

He owed this, to Melody, to his kind, to every single person who hated him for doing so much harm. The Doctor couldn’t stand the image of him wanting to run away earlier that day. He felt ashamed.

When he looked to the mirror, he saw nothing but a coward.

To run away from himself, he kept his mind busy with paperwork, until there was nothing else to sign.

Once again, he was alone. In his mind, the last words in the last paper sheet.

_Click’ click’ click’_

In the mirror, he notices the second presence. His friend was staring at him with an air of superiority.

“Well, well, well, looks like someone is back to his mind.”

Missy said, crossed arms and figured leaned against the door frame.

“I wouldn’t say ‘back to his mind’. I think you made this someone a bit madder than he already was,” He turned his head to her, staring directly into her eyes. “which no one thought that was possible.”

“You can always make someone go even more bananas, myself included.”

“Wouldn’t dare to try”

They kept silence for a minute, analysing one another. Missy was still a mess, he knew, but now her appearance wasn’t such a giveaway. Her hair was back to a neat form, she wore her hat, her clothes were clean and she smelled like power – yes, like power, because alchemists can do that. Her eye bags were covered by makeup and her lips were, as usual, painted red. She smiled, looking at him.

“You look like a homeless. And smell like one.”

“Sorry for not taking a shower, or a break. It was kinda out of my options, you see.”

She started walking outside the little room, and he followed her. Behind him, the door shut down and disappeared. The sorcerer leaned against the wall, posture relaxed and both hands in his pockets.

“I know why you are here.” He said, noticing the safe distance that Missy was from him, and remembering what the last paper said. “I read it, this time.”

Missy snorted, shaking her head. Suddenly, she looked like a little child with pure excitement. _That_ , he thought, _is really offensive_.

“I know, I know, saw the whole thing.” She said with a dismissive sign. “Quite boring, honestly, I was expecting more tears, screams and maybe a broken mirror.” She grabbed her wand. “Could’ve been quite the show, such a pity.”

The Doctor made a humming sound, getting his coat off – which had his wife’s diary inside. As he expected, a compartment opened on the floor and he let the clothing fall. Silently, the hole closed and disappeared. The wizard stared at the witch, waiting. When she opened her mouth, he decided that he would too, and both of them read his sentence, that was engraved inside their heads. Their voices came mingled in an unison.

“ _If the man known as The Doctor proceed to do anything that might harm and or destroy any of these papers, in futile attempt to make himself free of his responsibilities and or jeopardize the magical community, he shall be punished with an execution._ ”

Missy appeared very pleased with herself, and The Doctor was quite carefree, considering he was going to die within seconds – or minutes, depending on the witch’s will to talk or make things longer. He then realized that he had been dying all day long, inside that room, and now it would be just the physical, visceral death. _I deserve it,_ he thought, _I’ve done enough for a lifetime in this body_.

“Now,” She started to walk around, still in a safe distance. “before we go to the funny bit, there are a few things you need to know.” With her wand, she made a white schedule appear in front of the wizard, covering her figure.

The man saw a few events organized for his weekend.

“Today is Friday, 3 a.m. in London’s time zone. As you know, you were _supposed_ to go to a meeting today, but it appears so that humans are smarter than we thought. They decided to delay the reunion to Monday, probably to gather information about us. We were notified about this decision yesterday by every single news channel. Consider yourself lucky because they gave you have some spare time to cry and mourn over the stupid diary.”

The Doctor rolled his eyes, unfazed by the woman’s lack of tact and sensibility. Missy has been dead inside for a long time, and he didn’t really blamed her – not when he knew what she went through.

“In a few minutes, you will regenerate and leave.” Missy stated “Do what you want until tomorrow, 6 a.m., when someone will pick you up from your bookstore to a press conference. You must be in the required time and location tomorrow, otherwise the magic kind _will_ declare war against human beings, as if under your orders. Sunday, the threat of war is still valid and so are the conditions for it to not happen. ECSCA highly advises you to _not_ leave New York until you are informed otherwise.”

The wizard agreed with his head, not like she could see him. His eyes kept wandering over the schedule, as his friend explained it and walked back and forth in her heels.

“In this last conference, you will answer questions to the human reporters. We believe that you are capacitated to prudently decide what to tell and what not. Nevertheless, you will be the one to deal with the consequences. From now on, you are the _only_ responsible for our relationship with humanity.”

Then, the schedule disappeared and Missy stood still, pointing her wand in his direction from a safe distance. The Doctor then released two bottoms of his shirt, becoming a bit more comfy and dishevelled

“Last words?”

He sighed. It took him a second or two to process the information, and five more to reunite the strength to say something without his voice being just a simple whisper. Just now he realized how hard his hearts were beating and that he opened his shirt because he needed air. He licked his lips, trying to minimize his dry mouth, symptom of his comprehensible nervousness.

“Don’t be lasagna” He mocked, with both of his hearts beating so hard that he was scared they would jump out of his chest. He felt cold running through his veins.

“Well then,” she said, straightening her posture. The wizard did the same. He took a step away from the wall. Even though he thought he needed to die, he still didn’t truly want to. _It is only natural_ , he thought. Sweat dripped off of every pore in his body. He was trembling.

Missy watched him carefully. If she was enjoying the whole situation, her face didn’t show it. She was stern, collected and cold, just how it should be.

“With the power invested in me by ECSCA, I hereby apply your death sentence.”

He locked his jaw, his hands closed into fists, his body tensed visibly. Every cell in his body told him to run, and he would, like the coward that he is, but there were no places to hide. There was nothing he could do but accept his own death. He swallowed hard, his heart beating stronger, his mouth was agape, his chest violently rising and falling with his hyperventilation. He felt fear.

With Missy’s wand pointed to his chest, he took another step forward, possessed by courage. The wizard opened his arms just like the statue of Christ the Redeemer, ready to embrace his death, just so he could rebirth again in a completely new person. It was not his first go, anyways.

His chest rose and fell violently. His body was shaking. The blood thudded against his skull like it was going to break it at any moment. Still, he looked his executioner dead into the eyes.

“Exterminate.”

Time was slow, at that moment. His mind, perhaps, was so high in adrenaline that it could think way faster than the ticking of a clock. Or maybe it was because he was a Time Lord, and his perception of time itself was his curse.

That beautiful, venomous, sickening blue light came to him, spreading like a lightning.  The closer it got, the more the light turned to purple until it was almost touching the exact middle of his chest, shinning in the most outrageous, gorgeous shade of violet.

The last second before the spell touched him could’ve last nothing or a thousand years but the wizard would never be able to tell the difference. It was like he was stuck in a time loop, until he wasn’t.

He felt electricity spread to every limb of his, and then come back to the origin just so it could spread and come back again. It followed his blood flow, he noticed. Time was back to normal now. He felt pain.

With a scream that made Missy wince, his chest tightened and his hearts stopped beating, but he didn’t move, he couldn’t move. Then, a shiver he had experienced twelve times came up his spine. His vision blurred, everything started to become black and he felt his consciousness leave his body.

The Doctor was still on his feet, like he was petrified. At that moment, he was dead.

It only took a second for the new conscience to arrive, but both Missy and the Doctor felt like it lasted an eternity. Like in between 1 and 2 seconds, they travelled, one by one, every centi, mili, nanosecond, allowing them a unique experience of time.

His hearts, then, were beating together once again. The Doctor’s eyes weren’t seeing everything in a single shade of black, but in a billion shades of gold. Suddenly, there was golden energy leaving the wizard’s body as he screamed, his voice changing from a deep, masculine voice to a high pitched, feminine one.

One second later, he – who now is a she – stumbled forward, looking up to his executioner with brand new eyes.

“You…” she swallowed, her breath raggedy, her body bent and both her hands on her knees. “still look like Mary Poppins.” She mocked, still staring at the woman.

“Even after dying you are still an insufferable bastard.” Missy commented, back on her nasty, evil demeanour. The Doctor laughed, putting herself as straight as she could – which wasn’t much.

“Don’t expect me to be nice to my murderer.”

She sneered, putting one hand over her forehead, feeling it quite hot. She then used it to feel her new face. “ _Tiny nose_ ,” she said as she squeezed it, sounding nasal “sharp jawline,” she then placed both her hands in front of her, moving her fingers “still have ten of these, but something feels different.”

“You lost a few inches on your height”

“Did I?” She asked, one finger inside her right nasal cavity. Missy only rolled her eyes, throwing at the blonde the Time Lord’s – now Time _Lady –_ wand. The witch, however, had no coordination to catch it, so it fell on the ground. Missy then proceeded to transport herself out of the cube, leaving the Doctor bent, grabbing her wand.

“You really should’ve taken me with you” The Doctor stated to the walls, not bent anymore and now placing her wand on her waistband, feeling a bit frustrated “I really can’t escape here.” Unexpectedly, she coughed golden dust.

The familiar sound of transporting resonated once again and the blonde smiled.

“You are a completely useless sack of scum.”

The blonde felt a pull on her shirt’s collar, the strength of the grip making her lose balance and be thrown on the ground. Around her, the world swirled. She fell on her back, recognizing the new environment that she was in – that was with the lights on. She was at her house, alone.

She got up carefully, groaning because her back was hurt now. She used her hand to massage her spine as she got up. The witch took a quick look around, suddenly feeling out of place. Her head throbbed like the blood wanted to explode her veins and arteries and her arms tingled. She shut her eyes tightly and took a step back in an attempt to regain her balance because the world was spinning. Slowly, her senses were driven away from her body until her limbs turned into jelly and she fell on the floor, unconscious.

\- X -

 

“Doctor Smith? … there?”

She faintly heard, unable to comprehend the full sentence. Everything felt odd as the sorceress groaned. The voice tried to call her again, but got interrupted.

“Grandpa… there… woman”

She screamed. All her dizziness went by the window when an excruciating pain took over her. The blonde sat and hugged her belly tightly, her eyes shut with all her force. She was getting a new organ on her body, one she felt like never had before. Her mouth was completely open in agony and maybe she had killed someone with her shout. The ache broke her touch with reality.

She took a few seconds to notice hands on her arms, the pain a little more bearable now. She heard someone saying something, but she still couldn’t understand. Her breath was shaky and the pounding ache was still there, but now not almost killing her. She groaned, holding her clothes as if it would help her to cope with the pain.

“… listening to me? Hey, blonde woman?”

The blonde opened her eyes, her vision blurry and slowly focusing. She mumbled once or twice and then got a clear sight of the man kneeled in floor, right in front of her. He was white, old, had blue eyes, grey hair and held her arms, trying to keep her in place. Her breath was still raggedy, but her hug around herself loosened for a bit. The pain had been like a passing by car in high speed: came quickly, but vanished just as fast. It still hurt a bit, but now she could pretend it was not there.

“Do I… Do I know you?” She wandered more to herself than to him, feeling like the face was familiar but she couldn’t get her memory to work. Her body, that was so tense seconds before, was now a bit more relaxed – almost painless – and she could understand more things about the environment, like the man’s face – which was clearly worried. Se furrowed her brow, curious.

“I think she might be high.” The voice startled the woman, who finally noticed that there was a third person with them, standing tall right behind the kneeled man. He was black, had just a little bit of hair, eyes dark as the night and had a phone in his hand. She stared at him, trying to grasp a memory or a sort of recognition she knew that was there – but too far away for her to touch.

“I don’t think so, she doesn’t look like the type.” stated the older man, turning his head to the younger while he spoke. She focused on him, wondering why they were talking about her like she wasn’t there. The man seemed to have read her mind and directed himself to her “Did something happen to you? Did you use something?”

“No, no, I mean, yeah, someone…” She was relaxed now, no more pain throbbing inside her belly. “Someone murdered me, I think.” She said, her recent memory barely functioning. The woman was still very confused because even though the pain had faded away, everything still felt fogged. She placed one hand over her forehead “I’m pretty sure it was Mary Poppins.”

“She’s just high, Graham.” The third person declared, his voice showing his annoyance. It was like he was certain she was just a junkie and he just wanted to go back to whatever he was doing before he met her that morning – his eyes glued to the window were the main giveaway.

Graham – she knew his name now – seemed to have completely ignored the other man’s affirmation. His gaze was upon her, specifically over her hand. She blinked a few times, confused.

“Do you mind if I take a look?” He said, pointing to her hand. She hummed in agreement because, well, she was murdered, what else could happen? He took her hand carefully. “Ryan” Graham called with caution, sliding her sleeve up slowly and revealing her forearm. She gazed at it too, curious. Her veins – every single one of them, it appeared – where shinning in pure gold. “I don’t think drugs can do this.”

“What the fuck?” Ryan approached and bended his body so he could get a closer look to her arm. The brunet even poked it, to see if it was real. He then looked at her dead in the eyes “Are you Tinker Bell or something?!” he questioned, half scared, half in wonder.

The woman considered what Ryan said. She had heard that name before, she was certain, but she didn’t knew for sure if it was her name or not. It could be. Maybe it was. “Tinker Bell…” she whispered.

“I think she might be, mate.” Graham declared in awe. His face was lightened up, his eyes gleamed and he smiled widely. That type of face she could recognize anywhere: was of someone who’s marvelled by novelty. He looked at the woman and then to Ryan “Like, not-human.”

Ryan huffed in exasperation. “Seriously?” The woman looked at him, and he seemed lost. It was just like his morning got 200% worse and he didn’t thought it was possible. “Where is doctor Smith? He knows stuff, right? He can handle this.”

That name was incredibly familiar, but she couldn’t pinpoint from where she knew it. Her mind – that was blurry with regeneration and not really able to do proper judgement of the situation – decided that she was looking for him, this doctor. The blonde got her face close to Graham’s, so close that they could feel each other breaths. She stared at his eyes, almost being able to see into his soul.

“Do you have any idea of where that doctor person is?”

“I don’t really know, ma’am,” The older man said, trying to gain as much composure as he could in the face of that weird woman. He took his face a bit away from her and then got up in an awkward looking movement, relying on a hand for support, throwing his body in that direction and then finally getting up. “He could be in his bookstore, at the university or anywhere in the city, really. He roams a lot, that fellow. He always looks like he is searching for something.”

“Uh, guys, I kinda called the ambulan…” Ryan started, but got cut off midsentence by a very confuse woman.

“Why call me madam?” She wondered as she quickly got up. It was like she hadn’t noticed any of the feminine pronouns directed to her the entire conversation. Her neurons seemed to have made a connection between A and B just now. The old man, on the other hand, seemed just too confuse, like she had toasted his brain cells – and maybe she did.

“’cause you’re a woman?” He blinked a couple of times, her confusion migrating to him. He was sure five minutes ago, but now not so much. Ryan, who was focused on the window, seemed to also been caught by the woman’s strangeness. The things that she said were absurd, yes, but 100% effective in getting other people’s attention.

“Am I?” Her eyes lit up in wonder, happiness filling her chest. She never really thought about it, about becoming a woman. It felt like something entirely new and complex, but the type of thing that she could easily get used to. “Does it suit me?”

Graham didn’t know how to answer and Ryan simply watched the scene unfold, dumbfound. This day would definitely enter in their top ten weirdest days ever and the blonde woman in their top five weirder people ever. When someone knocked on the door, they seemed to be dragged back into reality – and just now notice the ambulance parked right in front of the house.

Ryan and Graham started a dialogue, but the Doctor simply didn’t pay attention to. In her head, a feminine, soft voice – that definitely wasn’t hers – spoke to her and she got absorbed in the voice’s instructions. It told her to get her wand – apparently she had a wand – and go to this specific place.

“What the hell is ‘Tardis’?” She exclaimed as she picked up the wand from her waistband. In the front door, paramedics entered and then stared at her – who was still shining in gold. Everything was a mess, everyone was lost and the silence that filled the room at that moment was noisier than a busy street. So she did the only thing she could think of: followed the instructions that the voice in her head had given her.

The blonde placed the wand in front of her, pointing it towards her chest. In her mind, a symbol was drawn but she couldn’t really tell what it was. Afterwards, the symbol appeared inside a room filled with books but with no people. She felt like it was the correct place to go and as if reading her mind, the symbol shone in orange and she felt electricity run inside her veins.

It was a quite odd moment, but she could get used to it with time. It was like her body existed, but not as common matter. She was sure that in the millisecond that the world zoomed around her, she couldn’t touch anything. Oh, the zooming was something else entirely, it was like she was staring at the whole world at the same time. It was incredible but also very, _very_ nauseating. She stood still and with her eyes closed, trying not to vomit.

After a minute or two, she regained her senses and noticed that now she wasn’t in the house anymore, but a library of sorts. The feminine voice in her head kept talking – more like a comprehensible hum, really – and giving instructions. The woman simply followed.

The voice guided her to what appeared to be an empty wall between two enormous bookshelves, right behind the payment counter and, thus, facing the main door. The shelves didn’t seem like they were special and neither did the wooden wall, but recently things weren’t exactly following a strict logical norm so maybe the wall could transport her to the vacuum of space. Who knows?

She pressed her hand against the centre of the wall, just as the hum told her to, but pretty much nothing happened. Well, at least that’s what she thought, until she noticed that her hand was partially buried in the otherwise solid wall. It felt exactly like when she touched water. With no further ado, the blonde swung her body forward and emerged on the other side of the wall, only a chill in her body as reminder of her previous act. She looked at her wand, amazed.

“Woah!” She exclaimed, her eyes darting between the object in her hand and the wall behind her. “That’s freaking amazing! Can I do it again?”

She didn’t wait for an answer. Expecting to pass the wall like it was nothing, the woman threw herself against it, using her shoulder to hit the surface – only to find it surprisingly as solid as it should be. Her shoulder stroke the wall with such a force that she was thrown on the floor, her back against the metallic ground. She groaned.

“You could’ve just said so!”

She cried to her wand, pouting. The object had fallen from her grasp – a few inches only – but she quickly reached for it, holding it again. The floor felt cold against her, but somehow familiar too. The place itself felt like a part of her out of her body, something that she belonged. Even without knowing exactly where she was, she knew that it was home – _their_ home.

She blinked a couple of times as she sat, trying to grasp in her memory who _they_ were, but nothing solid came to her. Everything about herself was blurry and uncertain, fogged and far away from her touch. It was like her memories were in a language that she couldn’t understand.

The blonde was so caught up in her own messy head that she didn’t hear the footsteps coming in her direction, or noticed the presence of a second person. Only when this second person cleared his throat she was brought back into reality. The blonde startled, turning to him with her free hand over her pounding hearts and her face exasperated.

“Who are you?” The man inquired. He was short, chubby and bald, completely dressed in red, wore glasses and also brought that sensation of familiarity to her. She squint her eyes as if she almost could recognize him, but in the last second her mind failed her. She simply whined in frustration and got up.

“You scared me!” She stated, annoyed and trying to make a mad expression. It didn’t really work. “Who are you?” She asked, both to him and herself, but no answer came to her mind – so she had to wait for his.

“I asked first.” The bald man was impatient, arms crossed. He arched a brow and took a good look around the woman, circling her a few steps away. It wasn’t intimidating but she still felt undeniably uncomfortable with his act. Instinctively, the woman pointed her wand towards his chest.

“And I asked second! Now, chop-chop, give me ya’ name. _I_ have a _wand_.” She tried to sound threatening but the man snorted at her as he stopped walking. The woman frowned. He caught her by surprise and now she was a bit lost – well, more than she was before. The man rolled his eyes.

“You are holding it backwards.” He said nonchalant, a friendly grin on his face. She looked down to her wand and verified that it was indeed being held wrongly: the tip was pointing to her and the holder pointing to him. Fast and clumsily, she used both her hands to rearrange her wand, turning it to the correct position. The woman once again tried to be threatening, but the man simply shook his head.

“My name is Nardole and you are inside the Tardis” The woman made a little ‘oh’ sound, like she already knew the answer but couldn’t come up with it. She felt like her memories were being translated to her language inside her head. “And the last time I saw you, you were a white headed Scotsman.”

“That part is a bit trick, innit?” The blonde scratched the back of her head and scronched, her past body finally coming into mind. Slowly, her memories were coming back and now she could remember a thing or two about her previous incarnations, mostly her latest. She grinned. “I’m friends with the Prime Minister!” She face palmed herself. “And she murdered me.”

“I told you she would.” Nardole mumbled, tuning around and walking towards the console room’s interface. “Not trust worthy, that one.”

As he messed with the controls (he was actually using them properly but she enjoyed the thought that she was the only one who could do that), the woman took a look around the room. It was all metallic, the lights were in between blue and purple, above the controls were a few things written in a language that she recognized as gallifreyan and the environment itself was kind of impersonal. It was modern and gorgeous, yes, but not cosy, not a place for a family to live. More of a one person thing, per say.

_Rrrrkk_

She was brought from her thoughts when Nardole pulled a screen and beckoned at her over his shoulder, still not facing the woman. She sprinted in his direction, stopping right beside him as her glance landed on the monitor.

The screen’s image was divided in two: a rectangle that showed every single one of her previous incarnations, one at the time but switching each picture in a blink of an eye, and a written part that was surprisingly in English. What was typed in the screen wasn’t much.

 _Known name: John Smith_  
Title(s): Doctor; wizard;  
The Oncomin… **(see more)**  
Species: Time-Lord  
Dimension of origin: Gallifrey  
Age: unknown  
Spouse: Professor Doctor Melody Pond  
Vital state: alive

The woman blinked a couple of times, trying to assemble what she read. It was like someone had explained to her something incredibly complicated but now she started to get it. There were so many dots being put together, so many synapsis being made at the same time that her brain felt like a firework show. She turned to Nardole, her eyes painted with amazement and her expression was one of pure astonishment.

“I’M THE DOCTOR, I’M JOHN SMITH!” She shouted as she placed both her hands over Nardole’s shoulder. Her smile was so wide that it made her think that it might jump out of her face – not that she cared. Nardole, on the other hand, seemed lost with the woman’s enthusiasm, his mouth agape as he tried to come up with something to say. For his own safety, he moved her hands from his shoulders to the console and took a few steps back.

The Doctor turned once again to the monitor, grasping the object’s lateral strap with her free hand and pointing her wand to where she glanced. Her eyes wandered through the information like it was the most amazing thing in the universe – and maybe it was, to her, for bringing some clarity to the witch’s lost mind. Suddenly, the pictures of her previous incarnations stopped showing, leaving a black rectangle behind.

The sorceress touched the screen were the black rectangle and, thus, her reflection was. No more white hair, no more blue eyes, no more thick eyebrows. Now, for the first time in her existence, she was, well, a _she_. Her face was square, her hair was blonde and short and her face itself was pretty delicate. She felt more and more happiness bubbling inside her chest and she could barely contain herself from bouncing like a child – even though she already knew she was a woman –, jumping two or three times in her place.

“That’s brilliant, oh boy, that’s brilliant!” She said, amazed. Her gaze was still glued to the screen and it felt like the object was the most precious thing in the universe. She placed both her hands over the console and used it as support as she bent her body forward.

“Well, John doesn’t fit it anymore, does it?” The Doctor wondered to herself. Inside her head, a list of possible names to substitute John came. She glanced to Nardole over her shoulder, her expression quite questioning. “What do you think about Gina? No, Joanne! No, Jane!”

The sorceress took a pause, her eyes looking to her right. Suddenly, they sparkled and she pushed herself from the console, fully turning her body to her friend’s direction. She filled her lungs with air, arched a brow and pointed at him with her wand, feeling like she was Sherlock Holmes and had just solved the mystery of the century. “Jodie.”

Nardole could barely blink. It was quite a change, going from the grumpy old man to this _energetic_ woman. His right palm was against his cheek and the man used his left hand to support his other arm’s elbow, his mouth still open in a perfect ‘O’. The situation, to him, was quite comic too.

Finally, he forced himself to speak something, but the only thing that came was

“Jodie.”

“Bingo!”

She wiggled her eyebrows and stood there, staring at Nardole. Now, a detail from her file entered her mind and stabbed her in the chest like a dagger, making the witch flinch. _Melody Pond_. Her smile faded from her face and her eyes darkened. The Doctor had been murdered and brought back to life, but her wife still wasn’t by her side. Her hand with her wand closed in a tight fist and the humming voice – her wand’s voice – spoke to her, trying to soothe her nerves.

“Is everything okay, Doctor?”

She grinned at Nardole, trying to cover her true feelings with whatever she could come up with first. With a swallow, her anger, guilty and sadness were buried inside her until the opportunity to free them came along.

“I left the oven on.” She mumbled quietly, her eyes lost somewhere inside that console room. “My house must be burning right now.”

She knew it wouldn’t stick. Nardole was friends with her for far too long, he could notice the nuances in her personality. Best case scenario: he wouldn’t understand her so well now that she had regenerated.

“You should go then, I don’t think you want to burn everything.”

She nodded. He really didn’t seem that convinced, but she guessed that he decided that was better to leave her be. She pointed her wand to her chest, but before transporting she gave him a wink.

“See you around, Nardie.”

And then, she vanished.

\- X -

Saturday came in a blink of an eye and the sorceress was inside her bookstore when it was almost 6 a.m. The Doctor had used her free time until her ‘driver’ came around rather well and even came up with a new clothing style – white rainbow shirt, large blue trousers and boots – that she enjoyed a lot even though people on the street seemed to stare at her. Well, witches were kind of known for a unique sense of style, weren’t they?

There were a few minutes until her ride came so for the lack of something better to do, she started to cast shiny spells – only because they were cute. It killed time quite well until she heard the familiar _zipping_ noise cut through the air.

“Hello, Doctor.” She turned around and smiled widely when saw the face of the man in front of her. Captain Jack Harkness, certainly an unexpected visit. He extended his hand “Care for a ride?”

“Hell yeah, I’ve never been a good driver anyways.”

She took his hand and they were quickly transported to a small room, which only had a single arm chair and was painted in a comfortable creamy colour. Jack let go of her hand and looked at her.

“Okay, I kinda have to go ASAP, but five minutes won’t hurt anyone.”

The witch nodded, her smile still bright on her face. Then, as if in a shared thought, they hugged each other tightly, the man spinning the blonde in the air, laughing loudly. When he finally released her, the witch cupped his face like an aunt would do to her nephew.

“You haven’t aged a day! You, elves, are something else.”

She squeezed his nose for a bit, making him laugh harder. His face was as sharp and handsome as the day she met him, a long time ago – so long that was even before the first war against the Daleks.

“You are the one to tell! From old and grumpy man to a young, beautiful woman. That’s what I call an upgrade.”

He said, pointing to her body, clearly impressed by her new looks. The witch rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, laughing at him.

“Oi! Don’t old shame the past me! It’s rude.” The Doctor tried to fake a mad expression, but it only lasted a second. “But I know right! I mean, _look at me_!”

The Doctor pointed to her face, referring more to the fact that now she was a woman than anything else. It was quite a new experience, a whole new perspective over the world and her surroundings. Her wife would love it! Suddenly, her mind light up. Her friend was married and quite soft for his husband. She decided that she needed some news about him.

“Jack,” she started, a suggestive expression painted on her face. “how’s Ianto?”

His smile faded for a moment, hurt. She then understood that something bad happened. When he inhaled to answer – or to completely change the subject – his wrist vibrated. He looked at his bracelet and frowned, displeased.

“Sorry to cut things short, but I need to go.”

The witch nodded, comprehensive.

“It’s okay, really. We can catch up another time.”

He smiled, giving his small friend a tight, quick hug, and then he disappeared into thin air. As en elf, he didn’t use wands but still needed to transport, so he used technology to allow him to do it so, something baptized as Vortex Manipulator. Cheap, horrendous travelling, if you ask the Doctor. Disgusting, really.

The witch didn’t have much to do after the man left. Out of pure boredom, she started casting spells just for the cheer of it (again), creating and destroying all types of things in that tiny room. _Maybe I should’ve brought a book_ , she thought. _Too late now_. She spent a considerable amount of time lost in her own magic, having fun in her own way, until an army soldier – or anything of sorts, she couldn’t really distinguish them properly – came to get her. She read that the woman’s name was Yasmin Khan.

The brunette guided her through the building’s corridors, which looked like were projected to be a bloody labyrinth. She only stopped when they were behind a curtain, a lot of noise coming from the other side of it.

“Here is where you are going to speak, ma’am.” She said, pointing to the curtain and then returning to her rigid position, hands held together and positioned behind her back.

“Thanks, Yaz.” She smiled. “By the way, do you wanna be my friend?”

The woman raised an eyebrow, a bit lost. If she was going to react, her superiors on her earphone didn’t let her do it. She sighed.

“You really should go, ma’am.”

The sorceress nodded, defeated. She opened the curtain on the central part, just to take a peak, and in front of her stood a stage and a crowd, the later bigger than what she was expecting. _Here we go_ , she thought as she walked in.

 

**Saturday night, Clara’s restaurant in Olympus**

After the encounter in the main entrance of the restaurant, Clara guided both of them to one of the ten private rooms. They were reserved to incredibly important people who could afford them and for some reason needed some privacy and the best food in this quadrant of the Galaxy. The Doctor and Bill sat on dark brown wooden chairs with cushion covered by red velvet. The room was purely made of dark wood and had a few paintings hanging on the walls. The environment made the Doctor think that this specific room was for romantic encounters – but she decided to let it down. Probably was the only one available.

“I didn’t expect to see you ever again,” Clara admitted as she placed the dishes over the wooden table, the sound muffled by the red tablecloth. “let alone in the telly, making announcements in our behalf.” The brunette snapped her fingers and silently a chair came floating to her. The woman sat gracefully. “Everyone thought that you were either dead or in prison.”

“I kinda been both in the last couple of days.” The Doctor admitted, pulling her plate closer. Besides her, Bill did the same. “Missy outsmarted me. Again.” The cover of the dishes turned into golden ashes and were carried away by the wind. The plates were empty but, after only a second, they were filled with the Doctor’s and Bill’s favourite foods – fish finger and custard and vegetarian lasagna, respectively. 

“You haven’t been gone for a couple of days, Doctor.” The blonde simply lowered her head as she heard Clara, knowing what she’d say. Maybe coming here hadn’t been the best idea but now was just too late to go back. “You vanished for 35 years and now you come back and I don’t see your wife with you.”

Besides her, a fork collided with a plate. Bill had dropped it in astonishment and the sorceress didn’t have to look to know that her mouth was open in a perfect ‘O’ shape.

“What do you mean with “vanished for 35 years?” The youngest couldn’t hide the shock in her voice tone. The Doctor looked up, her eyes meeting Bill’s. She was lost, confused, like it simply didn’t made sense.

“She means that for 35 years no one has seen me, or heard me, or received a letter.” Her eyes met Clara’s. The brunette seemed both disappointed and curious to what else she had to say. Quite a lot had happened in this period of time and not much she’d like to reveal. “Had a few things to get straight, ya’ know.”

“But what about your friends? Your family? God, I can’t imagine how it was for them!” Bill exclaimed in exasperation, her disappointment showed in her voice. That was expected since the youngest was such an empathic person. Still, the blonde’s heart ached a bit for knowing that she let her friend down.

“I had to, Bill.” The Doctor sighed, looking to Bill and seeing her friend upset. It wasn’t like she loved being away from everything and everyone but sometimes you only have bad choices but you still have to choose.

“Why?” Clara asked, staring at the blonde. The witch finally turned her head and faced the old friend, seeing sadness, anger and resentment written all over her face.

“I was searching for Melody.”

_It all started with a cry for help. They knew, of course they knew, that the Doctor and his wife would never refuse to help someone. They had quite the fame over being trouble-seekers, running to when everyone else was running from. It was their nature after all._

_They were in a random café in Icarus, just a normal, average Tuesday. Melody was planning in her iPad her next archaeological excursion and the Doctor was with his notebook planning his next trip – because he was, and still is, an adrenaline junkie. Over the table, two cups of tea._

_“I think I’ll ask Nardole to come with me.” Announced Melody as she sipped from her cup, her eyes glued to the screen. After drinking, she freed her grip from the object and it gracefully floated back to it’s former place. “He can be quite handy with machinery and God knows I need someone who can catch up a bit.”_

_“You really should find a better company to your trips, don’t you think?” wondered the Doctor, his white hair getting messier with the wind rushing through it. Besides his and Melody’s breaths, the only sound was the one of his pencil scratching the paper. “Get a few sharpers fellows, one of your phD students.”_

_“Sweetie, they already are my phD students.”_

_He grinned and let out a little ‘ah’ sound. It always amazed him how clever and cunning his wife could be – and, thus, how lonely she could get. Maybe what brought them together, besides their absolute adoration for one another, was their shared loneliness. Only the ones as old as them could really understand each other._

_The Doctor looked up. It was quite the sight, one he would never get tired of. In front of him was his beloved wife, with her wild curly hair, porcelain skin, sculptured features and glasses – no one nowadays had perfect vision, honestly. Behind her, the white and gold buildings of Icarus, the clouds touching the streets and a few floating cities that seemed to be taken out of a genius’ wildest dream. Everything was impossibly clean, shiny and gorgeous – which obligated the man to always wear sunglasses when he came around._

_“You are staring.” Melody mumbled, her eyes still locked on the screen as her clever fingers did the writing. Her expression was stern but her lips quirked a bit._

_“I think I’ve been for the past few centuries. I probably should stop, must be getting creepy by now.” He made a funny expression, making a sort of guilty face and pulling his lower lips down, showing his teeth._

_His wife rolled her eyes, finally letting the iPad down and gazing her stupid husband. In her eyes there was nothing but love, care and admiration. It melted his hearts every single time, to see that she looked at him like that, like he held the stars. God, it always made him want to do unspeakable things to her – and later they would. Or, at least, that’s what he thought._

_“You listen to me, sappy old man, I…”_

_Whatever she was going to say was cut by the noise of an explosion followed by multiple screams. Immediately, both of them got up and looked to the source – right behind Melody. Something seemed to have happened by the first street by the right. They didn’t have to exchange a single word._

_Both wizards got they wands in hands and just with a simple glance, they knew what to do._

_Melody jumped. Her body was sent high up, at least 20 feet and underneath her feet appeared a wide white rune. Like a superhero from comic books, she went forward, flying over the avenue._

_On the streets, the Doctor acted just as fast. His ankles shone with a white rune and he ran towards a building’s wall with unhuman speed. Expectedly, he started to walk over it like gravity didn’t exist. As he ran over the wall, he used his wand to make the clouds realign as shining blue arrows, pointing towards safety. More and more screams filled their ears but they were sure that things would get under control soon. His wife also seemed to be doing her job summoning a soothing aura._

_Finally, both Melody and the Doctor turned to the street that seemed to be the source of the problem – she floating like a goddess and he over a building’s wall pretending that it was the ground. Nothing was really visible due to the dust and smoke, but things were certainly bad. A few bodies over the floor, shouts for help and desperation. They needed to be fast._

_They exchanged a glance. Coordinated like professional dancers, they pointed their wands and the winds changed, making their hairs fuss. They grinned, screaming together in an unison as they ran (and flew) towards the problem._

_“Sobrat'sya vmeste”_

_Nothing came out of their wands but the ashes seemed to have heard the command. Two tornados started to form from the bottom to the top, spinning around themselves and clearing the vision a bit. There was way too many people, it appeared, but they couldn’t see perfectly._

_Now, they were around a hundred feet away from the source._

_The smoke joined the tornados, making it a nuance between grey and black. With a movement made harmonically by both wizards, the dirty tornados ascended and now they could see. Just like they had hit an invisible wall, both were forced to stop. A cold chill ran the Doctor’s spine as he gazed for his wife, seeing her as lost as him._

_In front of a fallen building were Cybermen. Not one, not two, but an army with their hands pointed towards them, ready to fire. Then, the Doctor made the mistake to look back. Behind them was another army, but of Sontarans. The large street was filled with enemies._

_The screams stopped like they were never there and every single person who was running before turned into ashes._

_Their first thought was to go up, but they weren’t very fast. Both the Cybermen and the Sontaran shot, making a tsunami of energy projectiles come for them._

_More smoke was formed over the skies as the projectiles exploded, like a firework show orchestrated by the devil. The dull sounds of the energy exploding echoed through the previously silent street but not one scream was heard. No one could see a thing, so both Cybermen and Sontarans had to activate their heat signature mode._

_Even before they did it, two yellow spheres emerged from the smoke, both of them cracked. Fortunately, the Doctor and Melody were pretty capable of handling themselves in a last minute fight – centuries on experience made them that good._

_“Has been quite a while since someone tried to kill us the last time.” The Doctor smirked as the energy projectiles were launched once again. More and more explosions came, but they appeared to have hit nothing but each other. “I was getting bored.”_

_Now, the Cybermen and Sontarans found it a bit weird that there was no heat signature where the targets should be. Behind each army, a yellow rune appeared and a wave of iron stacks came in their direction, just like bullets, obligating the armies to spread. That, however, didn’t stop them from attacking the sources._

_The Doctor ran in the air, holding his attack with one hand as he did everything to deflect the energy projects with the other. He was doing quite well until a shot made him lose his equilibrium and stop his attack – because if he misdirected, he could hit Melody. As he stabilized himself, another and another shots came and he saw no option._

_The white runes underneath each of his feet were undone and he started to fall, screaming as he went in encounter with a building’s ceiling. The sound of the collision never came. The wizard passed through the ceiling and the building’s floor like they were made of air. It gave him time to cast a spell to decelerate him until he safely floated over the tenth floor._

_The first thing he did was run to a window to look to his wife. She zipped through the air with such expertise that it seemed like she was born to do it. Her attacks – thunders casted by a huge blue rune over the sky and projectiles conjured by yellow runes – seemed to come from everywhere. She seemed to be waiting for his signal._

_Besides him, something exploded. Luckily, he wasn’t close enough to be launched or hurt, but it gave him the certainty that the enemies knew where he was. On his other side, something else exploded._

_The sorcerer made a decision. He took a few steps back from the window and then ran for it, using his shoulder to break the glass. As he descended in free fall, the wizard arranged his body to aim properly. He used his right arm to bring his hand in a claw, palm facing forward, to right over his mouth. A tiny black rune appeared – he was around seventh floor now – and he violently pushed his arm downwards, making a 180º arch. The rune stood there, over his mouth, and a half-circle of black energy got out of it._

_He was now on the fifth floor when he stopped falling._

_“You really should be more careful.” Said his wife as she used her wand to float him safely, dragging the man along her flight._

_In front of him, the half circle grew around 30 times and everything it touched was cut in the contact area – including a building that now was falling._

“I don’t get it.” Bill said. She stood in her feet, walking around the room as she heard the story. Her arms were crossed and she seemed focused. “You had everything under control.”

“Yeah, we had. It wasn’t that difficult to finish them alone, especially because back then the Cybermen couldn’t fly.” The blonde pointed out, her eyes wandering as she considered the possibility of them flying. Not a very good one.

“And what does this has to do with you looking for her? For, like, 35 years?” Bill asked, still lost because the Doctor hadn’t made a point. Clara sighed and gazed at Bill, patient.

“It’s where she lost Professor Pond, isn’t it, Doctor?” She said, her eyes now landing on the blonde. She simply nodded, taking a deep breath.

“We got distracted.” The ambassadress mumbled, her head lowered as she painfully remembered that day and what happened. She couldn’t tell anyone what happened, what got them destroyed, what made her lose everything. Not yet, at least.

“And then?” Bill questioned as empathy filled her eyes. She finally had stopped walking for a second.

“Then… I lost her.”

_He woke up. He felt like his head was under the pressure of a black hole and that his body was as sore as it’d be if he had carried Earth on his shoulders the night before. He was dizzy, but thankfully not the dizziness from regeneration. He caressed his face and eyes slowly, trying to get back to his senses. The darkness he was in made a bit easier for him to open up his eyes._

_Wand. He started to look for his wand as quickly as he could, not finding it in anywhere._

_“Bloody hell”_

_He kept looking until a memory came in. He had used a minimum portal to transport it to somewhere safe before he was captured. He had been captured._

_“Shit, shit, shit, shit”_

_He got up from the hard floor, adrenaline filling his veins. It was too dark and he was too tired to cast a spell to light the whole place. He made a tiny yellow rune with a light a bit stronger than the one of a candle. He started roaming._

_“Melody!”_

_Was all he could say as desperation flowed through his veins. She had to be somewhere around there, anywhere. He looked for her in every possible place but she wasn’t in the building._

_He probably had spent days in there, searching over and over again until he had no more strength to. Reuniting everything that he got, he made a portal and threw a piece of paper through it with the space energy of where the hell he was. After that, he fainted._

_\- X -_

_This time, when the sorcerer woke up, Nardole was by his side._

_“Where the hell am I?” He asked, his voice not much louder than a whisper due to the medicines he had to take. The lights made it difficult to open up his eyes._

_“Infirmary inside the Tardis. Now, care to explain why you were in a circle dimension?”_

_The sorcerer groaned. Of course it would be a circle dimension, of course it would destroy itself when he left – because apparently the whole dimension was just that disgusting building and he was alone inside._

_“We fell on a trap. A big one.” The Doctor admitted, now with his eyes fully open. Whoever had made it not only was careful, but impossibly clever and knew him far too much. Actually, knew the information that only four people know besides him and his wife. The obvious conclusion was that someone betrayed him in a way he would never be capable to forgive – and he would make sure he’ll give them hell. “Where’s Melody?”_

_“I… I thought that you’d know.”_

_He sat, ignoring his tired body. The sorcerer remembered what he had passed the last few days, the desperation of being looking for his wife and not finding her anywhere – his hopes laid on the chance that she’d be home. He felt panic. The Doctor took off the tubes from his arms with violence and got out of the bed. She wasn’t there, which means that she hadn’t come home, which means trouble. Unfortunately, the tiredness of his body won his will easily and he almost dropped to the floor, but Nardole caught him._

_“Easy, easy” The man got the wizard up, using magic to make the man straight. He placed the Doctor once again on the bed as the man breathed heavily – which seemed a bit like a panic attack._

_“I need to find her” He whispered “I need to find her.”_

_Nardole placed his hand over the wizard’s chest, trying to calm him down._

_“Yes, you do, and I’m sure you will. But first, you need to heal or otherwise the only place you’ll be looking is the floor.” As he spoke, the man grabbed a mask and placed it over the Doctor’s mouth and nose, making him inhale the substances emitted by the object. It helped the wizard to calm down and rest._

_Three days after, when he was able to move freely – but still painfully –, the sorcerer left the Tardis and started to plan how to get his wife back, how to search for her. After one or two days planning, the man went for his journey – but always came back to the Tardis every three days._

“It’s been 35 years ever since. I’ve been going through every single dimension in our cluster, every single city, every single place, looking for her, for clues, for anything that can lead me to my wife.” She stated, seriously. The environment felt heavy, dark even. She let her breath out. “And I’m going to kill whoever took her from me.”

“Doctor…”

The blonde blinked. She knew that tone, it was the tone that Clara used in the wars to announce a death to a family or tell someone injured that there was no way back and they were faded to die. It was smooth, controlled and serious. She gazed the brunette in the eyes, her own orbs darkened in anticipation because she knew that nothing good would come.

“Is Professor Pond dead?”

The witch closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. It was not something she had spoken about to anyone but the government (Missy) – and only because she thought that maybe, _maybe_ they (she) could help her. Now, her mind was flooded with memories of her past body roaming the worlds looking for the sight of those golden curls. She shook her head.

“No.” She opened her eyes slowly and gazed at Bill and then Clara. “I’d know if she was.” The Doctor confessed. Her throat felt tight enough for her to feel the need to open the bottoms of her shirt around her neck. She guided her hand there and then realised that there was nothing and the thickness in her throat was purely emotional.

“And did you find something?” Bill asked, all her anger melted as her heart was destroyed with the story that her friend told. It was crueller than simply killing him – or her now.

“Absolutely nothing.” The Doctor declared. “But if she was dead, I’d know. Our connection is far too strong, not many can have this privilege. I’m sure she’s alive, and that’s what makes me keep up.” She finished. Her eyes then landed over the food on her plate, making she notice that she hadn’t eat a single thing.

“I understand, I think. When Danny…” Clara paused. Even though it had been years since his death, it was still a delicate subject – even for the Doctor, but for other reasons. “I knew it, I felt it, I knew what was coming even before I got home.”

“I get it, too.” Bill said. “When mom passed away I… I can’t explain it, really, but I kinda knew.” She sighed. It was something that seemed to be with magical beings – and even humans sometimes –, this pre-death intuition.

“Melody was the first option, you know, to be our ambassadress.” The Doctor said and then chuckled for a second. Of course she was, no one would be as half as competent as she, not even the Doctor. “They only took me because she vanished.”

“You are the best possible option, Doctor. I have no doubts about it.” Bill stated and Clara confirmed with her head. The blonde smiled.

After that, Clara remade their food and they ate silently, since no more conversation seemed necessary. After that, Bill had to go because she had to sort things out with her girlfriend in London, but the Doctor stood for a bit more.

“You didn’t come all the way just to tell a story did you?” Clara wondered when they were alone. Her eyes were a bit dark with resentment, anger maybe. She made an exasperated sound when the Doctor shook her head.

“No.”

\- X -

Sunday went quite well.

The sorceress came to a different room, not even half as big as the one where she first presented herself and magic to the world, but it had lots of chairs – so it was comfier. The Doctor guessed that there would be elite media only event, where those invited belonged to the most important companies around the globe. Well, it was a human mater and she shouldn’t stick her nose in their business – if they decided that this way was better, this way shall be – but she still thought that this type of arrangement was unfair.

She arrived at 6 a.m. sharp, the room already crowded with god knows how many heads, every single one of them starving for the woman’s attention. Their eyes were glued to her and they watched every move like they were doing some sort of scientific experiment – and maybe they were.

Some things kept pretty much like her last interview, such as the flashes throughout the whole process and her constant need of water. It was a day which she dedicated entirely to the act of answering questions, reasoning with accusations and trying her best to keep things cool. It worked rather well.

The reporters were only dismissed around midnight and she thanked every deity she could think of when she was finally released from her duties. She transported herself straight inside her hotel room, called the room service to warn them that she was inside and then simply fell unconscious over the far too good mattress.

\- X -

Her only news from ECSCA came by the end of Monday’s afternoon, when she was buying useless stuff at the mall just for the sake of it. It happens that the Doctor had quite a lot of money, also another perk of being a sentient being. The message was simple and appeared on her left arm, just like a temporary tattoo.

_Crosby Street Hotel, New York. Ask for the Angel’s suite;  
8p.m._

It was 7:30p.m. and she was half an hour from this specific place, so she just called an uber – yes, she had a phone. The whole way was quiet but her mind was quite busy. She kept thinking about what she spoke with Clara the night before, and how it mattered right now. When they arrived, she left a generous tip to the driver.

The hotel was quite gorgeous. Had those big, large windows, something she loved because allowed the sun to properly illuminate stuff. The place was also fancy.

“Good evening, ma’am.” The attendant greeted, a trained smile painted on his face. He didn’t seem surprised to see her, even if on the telly behind him was her face as the journalist spoke about yesterday’s conference. “How can I help you?”

“Hello…” her eyes looked to his nametag “Jordan, I’ve come for the Angel’s suite.” She smiled and Jordan nodded, getting up and leaving his chair. The blonde’s eyes wandered on the man and she quickly noticed he wasn’t just and attendant – or they now are supposed to carry hidden guns.

“Follow me, madam.”

She did as told. The place was not very crowded, but the Doctor realised that she was being watched. Humans were being careful with her – and she couldn’t really blame them. Fortunately, no one tried to attack her or anything of sorts, not even when she was in the lift with Jordan and what she presumed to be another three federal agents. They stopped at the sixth floor.

“Here, madam.” Jordan informed, leaving the lift. The Doctor went right after and kept a safe distance from him, until he stopped in front of the room 279, his hand over the handle. “Please, come in.”

She did as instructed, but the man didn’t follow her. Behind the blonde, the door closed and she recognized the sound of it being locked. She took a step further and the lights turned on.

It was quite the spacious room, or at least it was bigger than what she imagined. It was supposed to have a bed, television and other things that the usual hotel room would have but it didn’t. Instead, a round table made of glass with two chairs that actually seemed pretty comfortable. For the lack of something else to do, she sat.

When she did, a door at her right opened.

“You are quite punctual, Doctor, I’ll give you that.” Ah, she knew that voice so, so well. She thought that she was ready, she really did, but it was something else entirely to hear it again in person. The Doctor swallowed, holding herself together to make her voice sound steady. Finally, she turned her head to the side, facing the second woman, the one who had spoken to her.

“Hello, River Song.” The addressed woman smirked mischievously, looking the Doctor up and down. Her hair was still that curly blonde and her body was still quite the sight to behold.

Finally, the Doctor was with her wife.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my God this chapter seemed endless in the proofreading wtf  
> Okay guys, that is it for now and I really hope you enjoyed it. Idealy, this chapter should be read without a pause and right after reading chapter two - but if you didn't, it's okay. I have a lot of things planned to the next chapter, but I don't know the length it'll have and I can't predict it properly. Please let me know if chapters this big are exhausting because, if so, the next time I'll break it in two so the reading becomes easier.  
> Also, I used russian for the spell bc I couldn't come up with a new language myself. The 'Sobrat'sya vmeste' should mean something like 'reunite'. I prefered to not use english bc it sounded boring - and russian sounded foreign enough.  
> Anyways, see you soon (if Brazil doesn't spontaneously explode), please leave your kudos and comments (I love them and try to answer the best that I can).  
> XOXO

**Author's Note:**

> Friendly reminder that I had no beta reader, so any grammar errors are my own, and my own only.  
> A special kiss and hug to my lovely friends Alice, who has helped me with this fanfic since it's beginning, and Karen, who read C1 and gave me a thorough review.  
> Thanks for reading, please leave your kudos and comments, it means a lot to me.  
> Xoxo <3


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